Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s cloud services. Azure can host virtual machines and act as a location to store files. However, Azure can do much more as well, providing an Active Directory instance, provide SQL database access, work with hosted Visual Studio, host web sites or provide BizTalk services. All of these can be managed at https://manage.windowsazure.com.
You can also manage Windows Azure from the command line on Linux, Windows or Mac. To download command line tools, visit http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/downloads/#cmd-line-tools. Once downloaded, run the package installer.
When the package is finished installing, visit /usr/local/bin where you’ll find the azure binary. Once installed, you’ll need to configure your account from the windowsazure.com site to work with your computer. To do so, log into the windowsazure.com portal.
Once logged in, open Terminal and then use the azure command along with the account option and the download verb:
azure account download
This account downloads the .publishsettings file for the account you’re logged in as in your browser. Once downloaded, run azure with the account option and the import verb, dragging the path to your .publishsettings file from https://manage.windowsazure.com/publishsettings/index?client=xplat:
azure account import /Users/krypted/Downloads/WindowsAzure-credentials.publishsettings
The account import then completes and your user is imported into azure. Once imported, run azure with the account option and then storage list:
azure account storage list
You might not have any storage configured yet, but at this point you should see the following to indicate that the account is working:
info: No storage accounts defined
info: account storage list command OK
You can also run the azure command by itself to see some neat ascii-art (although the azure logo doesn’t really come through in this spiffy cut and paste job):
info: _ _____ _ ___ ___________________
info: /_\ |__ / | | | _ \ __|
info: _ ___ / _ \__/ /| |_| | / _|___ _ _
info: (___ /_/ \_\/___|\___/|_|_\___| _____)
info: (_______ _ _) _ ______ _)_ _
info: (______________ _ ) (___ _ _)
info:
info: Windows Azure: Microsoft's Cloud Platform
info:
info: Tool version 0.7.4
help:
help: Display help for a given command
help: help [options] [command]
help:
help: Open the portal in a browser
help: portal [options]
help:
help: Commands:
help: account to manage your account information and publish settings
help: config Commands to manage your local settings
help: hdinsight Commands to manage your HDInsight accounts
help: mobile Commands to manage your Mobile Services
help: network Commands to manage your Networks
help: sb Commands to manage your Service Bus configuration
help: service Commands to manage your Cloud Services
help: site Commands to manage your Web Sites
help: sql Commands to manage your SQL Server accounts
help: storage Commands to manage your Storage objects
help: vm Commands to manage your Virtual Machines
help:
help: Options:
help: -h, --help output usage information
help: -v, --version output the application version
Provided the account is working, you can then use the account, config, hdinsight, mobile, network, sb, service, site, sql, storage or vm options. Each of these can be invoked along with a -h option to show a help page. For example, to see a help page for service:
azure service -h
You can spin up resources including sites, storage containers and even virtual machines (although you might need to create templates for VMs first). As an example, let’s create a new site using the git template:
azure site create --git
Overall, there are a lot of options available in the azure command line interface. The web interface is very simple, with options in the command line interface mirroring the options in the web interface. Running and therefore scripting around these commands is straight forward. I wrote up some Amazon stuff previously at http://krypted.com/commands/amazon-s3cmd-commands, but the azure controls are really full featured and I’m really becoming a huge fan of the service itself the more I use it (which likely means I’ll post more articles on it soon).

WIndows Server’s ntbackup tools have become easier and easier to use over time. But there’s no more ntbackup. Well, there’s wbadmin, which is very similar. You can still restore data by downloading ntbackups restore tool at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=974674.
Windows Backup is now capable of backing up a system with the same ease of use that Apple brought to automated backups with Time Machine and Time Machine Server. In fact, providing access to only a few more options Microsoft’s tools provide access to some pretty nice options, easily configured.
To get started, you’ll first need to install the Windows Backup Role. To do so, use the Add Roles and Features Wizard in Windows Server 2012 to add the Windows Backup role. Once added, open Server Manager and then click on the Tools menu, selecting Windows Server Backup.
From Windows Server backup, you can enter the name of an Azure account to configure cloud based backups. However, in this walkthrough we’re going to choose local backups, which really for us means to a network share rather than the cloud, although we could back up to a USB drive or some other internal drive as well. Click Local Backup, then click Configure. Click on Backup Schedule… to bring up the Backup Schedule Wizard. At the Getting Started screen, click on the Next button.
At the Server Backup Configuration screen of the Backup Schedule Wizard, choose whether to back up all the data or perform a custom backup, which allows you to define only certain files to back up. I like to back up all the data for the most part, so we’re going to go with the full server and click Next.
At the Specify Backup Time screen, choose the appropriate times of the day to back the server up and click on the Next button.
At the Specify Destination Type screen, choose where you’d like to back your data up to and then click on the Next button. As mentioned, we’re going to back data up to a network share.
At the Specify Remote Shared Folder screen, provide a path to the network path that you’d like to back your files up to.
The backups should then be tested and validated before putting a system into long-term production. The command line tool used to manage backups is wbadmin. The wbadmin has the following verbs available to it:

enable backup – modifies existing backups or makes new schedules

disable backup – disables a backup schedule

start backup – starts a one-time backup job

stop job – stops running recovery or backup jobs that are currently in progress

get versions – shows the details of backups for recovery

get items – lists the contents of a backup

start recovery – runs a recovery job

get disks – shows online disks

get virtualmachines – shows Hyper-V VMs

start systemstaterecovery – recovers the system state backup from a valid system state backup

start systemstatebackup – makes a system state backup

delete systemstatebackup – deletes a system state backup

delete backup – deletes a backup

delete catalog – used if a catalog gets corrupt usually, to delete a catalog of backups

restore catalog – only use this option to attempt to fix corrupted catalogs, restores a catalog

Note: In addition to these options, there are even more commands available to Powershell. These are pretty well documented at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee706683.aspx.
So while you will still need a 3rd party tool if you wish to backup to tape or you need very complex features, there’s now a very easy to use tool, that integrates cloud and local storage backups for Windows Server and is just about as easy to manage and configure as Apple’s Time Machine is on OS X or OS X Server.